An article review of medical research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal states that Vancouver’s Insite safe injection clinic is doing what it is supposed to be doing and that it saves lives and increases access to treatment. Based on this medical evidence, the study authors ask that the federal government abandon a last-ditch Supreme Court challenge attempt to shut the clinic down.

The Insite safe injection clinic has been in operation in Vancouver’s drug plagued
lower Eastside since 2003. At the clinic, heroin users inject drugs under a
nurse’s supervision, using sterile disposable injection equipment.

Reviews of the Insite clinic have shown that:

The clinic
reduces the harms to users of heroin use

It
increases referrals to methadone treatment and detoxification programs

It
saves millions of healthcare dollars through a reduction in drug overdoses
and through a reduction in shared-injection equipment disease transmission

It
does not lead to relapses among former drug users

Opened in 2003 under a Liberal federal government, the Conservative
government which took power in 2005 opposes harm reduction efforts on
ideologiocal grounds and has tried repeatedly to have the clinic shut down. Two
federal government instigated legal challenges at the provincial level have
already failed – leaving the federal government with only a supreme court
challenge left to try.

In an interview, review study author Dr. Michael Rachlis of the
University of Toronto said, "We're calling on the
federal government to drop the current action they have in the Supreme Court
and to let local health officials, public and the local police get on and do
their jobs in terms of dealing with the addiction problem… As physicians we
find this particularly concerning that the federal government appears to be
flouting the scientific evidence in this area."

In their article, the authors note that the stance taken by the
current government against the Insite clinic is popular with their conservative
base, but say that it is a stance taken on ideological and not medical or
scientific grounds.

Some drug users are willing to get help but aren't ready to quit at this moment. Recognizing this, harm reduction programs exist to minimize the health, economic and social costs of drug use at the personal and community levels. Read Article